AS is the story elsewhere, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa failed to achieve the MDG targets, with government officials linking the failure with thin resources coupled with natural and man-made calamities.

Taking cover behind anonymity, an official said no proper analysis had been done on MDGs in the province which “mostly relies on UNDP reports”.

With UNDP technical assistance, a special cell was established in the province to monitor the implementation of MDGs. The cell packed up business in June 2014. Since then, the official said, there was no focal unit or person to oversee progress, if any, on the MDGs.

But he said the province had evolved a Strategic Development Partnership Framework (SDPF) in the recent past which in effect has pushed forward the deadlines of certain MDGs by three years. Under the SDPF, poverty alleviation, infant mortality rate, and maternal mortality ratio targets would be achieved in 2018. But the targets are not as ambitious under the SDPF as was the case with the MDGs.

For example, against the MDG target of bringing poverty ratio down in KP to 13 per cent in 2015 from 39 per cent recorded in 2011, the province has now pledged under the SDPF to bring down poverty to 30 per cent in 2018.

In terms of reducing Extreme Poverty and Hunger from 39 per cent to 13 per cent, the province could not achieve the stipulated targets. The population below the poverty line in KP at 39 per cent is substantially higher than the national average.

Under Universal Primary Education, the province could only achieve the net primary enrolment ratio of 67 per cent against the target of 100 per cent. The literacy rate has improved from 38 per cent to 52 per cent against the envisaged MDG target of 88 per cent. KP is also off-target on several gender equality indicators. The ratio of girls to boys in primary education is 0.81 against the MDG target of one; the ratio of youth literacy (15 to 24-year-old) is 0.60 against the target of one; share of women in wage employment in the non-agriculture sector is 6.54 against the target of 14. However, the target of proportion of seats held by women in the National Assembly has been achieved which is 17 against the national level of 22.

Infant mortality rate (IMR) was supposed to drop down from 79 to 40 deaths per 1000 live births, but the province could only bring it down to 60. Besides, immunisation targets have also been missed, but the target related to the proportion of children under five who suffered from diarrhoea has been achieved.

The coverage of lady health workers (LHWs) in the province is 58 per cent of the population against the MDG target of 100 per cent and the national average of 83 per cent. The maternal mortality rate (MMR) was to be reduced from 275 to 140 per 100,000 but the actual achievement is 250.

Data related to the six indicators under the goal of combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases is scant and sketchy.

In the domain of environmental sustainability, however, the province has progressed much beyond the targets as forest covered area and the land area protected for conservation of wildlife stand at 17.4 per cent and 12.4 per cent against the respective targets of six and 12 per cent. This, indeed, is some achievement.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2015

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